Rome is not giving up its pursuit, however, appointing SSPX-friendly American Augustine Di Noia as point man for negotiations with the SSPX. Di Noia, a Dominican, told Catholic News Service that "you can't read them from the point of view of some liberal bishops who may have been participants (at the council), you have to read them at face value. . . . Given that the Holy Spirit is guiding the church, the documents cannot be in discontinuity with tradition."

That should be music to the SSPX's ears, along with Di Noia's insistence that ""It is possible to have theological disagreements while remaining in communion with the see of Peter." As long as your disagreements are to the right of Vatican theology, anyway. If you are the Leadership Conference of Woman Religious, different rules apply.